How email marketing makes an impact for small businesses

When many people think of email as a marketing channel, they primarily think of large enterprises connecting with heavy volumes of customers. The thinking is that because big businesses have so many customers and so little time to interact with them all, they need to use email marketing tools to automate that process.

That thinking is not incorrect. But to assume that email marketing is only a useful channel for the large corporation is quite the leap - in fact, small businesses are increasingly finding that one of the best ways to engage with customers on the local, granular level is through their inboxes.

According to The Business Journals, there are several ways that email marketing can help small businesses thrive. Chris Rancourt, an email marketing expert at NextAdvisor.com, believes the channel has a few advantages that should come into play for small-scale enterprises.

"When it comes to promoting your own business, word of mouth is often not enough to let your target market know about your products or special offers," Rancourt explained. "That's where email marketing steps in. Email marketing helps keep your current audience informed and attracts new audiences through special promotions and offers. Because of ease of use and convenient functionality, email marketing helps you stay connected with your most loyal customers and boost the number of returning customers."

Small businesses can take advantage of email marketing using a few different strategies. They can send out newsletters to their most preferred customers, keeping them abreast of the latest goings-on. They can offer discounts and deals, too.

In all these endeavors, it's important that companies of all sizes keep a close watchful eye on data quality as they go. When using email or any other channel to communicate with consumers, accurate contact information is a key ingredient.